Alexis de Tocqueville Institution
Encyclopedia
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
–based conservative think tank
Think tank
A think tank is an organization that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, and technology issues. Most think tanks are non-profit organizations, which some countries such as the United States and Canada provide with tax...
that produced reports and policy research.
It was named after the French historian Alexis de Tocqueville
Alexis de Tocqueville
Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville was a French political thinker and historian best known for his Democracy in America and The Old Regime and the Revolution . In both of these works, he explored the effects of the rising equality of social conditions on the individual and the state in...
. AdTI's reports are intended primarily to influence public policy debate. Founded in 1988, its president is Ken Brown
Kenneth Brown (author)
Kenneth P. Brown, Jr. is an American lobbyist and author, and the former president of the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution , a think tank based in Arlington, Virginia....
and its chairman is Gregory Fossedal
Gregory Fossedal
Gregory Fossedal is the self-described chairman of the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution .Fossedal, Gordon Haff, Benjamin Hart, and Keeney Jones founded the right-wing Dartmouth Review in 1980. Fossedal graduated from Dartmouth College in 1981 magna cum laude with an A.B. in English Literature...
. It had 14 staff researchers at its peak. It largely ceased operations in 2006. It issued its last press release in 2007 announcing that its former Chairman was running for President of the United States. Its website was last updated on Wednesday, May 12, 2010.
Funding sources
Like most think tanks, AdTI does not publicize its backers and donors. Like all non-profit organizations, some of this information is available in its annual filings with the IRS.As reported by MediaTransparency
MediaTransparency
MediaTransparency was a left leaning political project begun in 1999 which monitors the financial ties of conservative think tanks to conservative foundations in the United States. Its database tracks over 50,000 grants awarded since 1985, which total more than $3.2 billion USD. It was run by...
, the AdTI's backers from 1988 to 2002 include:
- Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
- John M. Olin FoundationJohn M. Olin FoundationJohn M. Olin Foundation was a grant-making foundation established in 1953 by John M. Olin, president of the Olin Industries chemical and munitions manufacturing businesses. Unlike most non-profit foundations, the John M. Olin Foundation was charged to spend all of its assets within a generation of...
- Philip M. McKenna Foundation, Inc.
- Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation
- The Carthage Foundation
- Koch Family FoundationsKoch Family FoundationsKoch Family Foundations is the informal name for a group of charities in the United States of America associated with the family of Fred C. Koch. The most prominent of these are the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation and the David H. Koch Charitable Foundation, created by two of Fred C...
Projects funded include:
- numerous grants from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation "to support education-reform research and activities";
- a number of grants to support the Teacher Choice Project;
- $50,000 in 2000 to "support research on teacher unions and education reform" from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation;
- in 1998, $168,750 from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation and the John M. Olin Foundation "to support research and writing on new tactics of U.S. progressive movement in the Post-Cold War era";
- A total of $30,000 in 1995 and 1996 from the John M. Olin Foundation for "the Action Plan for Defense PrivatizationPrivatizationPrivatization is the incidence or process of transferring ownership of a business, enterprise, agency or public service from the public sector to the private sector or to private non-profit organizations...
, conducted by the Committee for the Common Defense"; - In 1998 $5,000 from the John M. Olin Foundation to "support promotion for The Democratic Century, a book by Gregory FossedalGregory FossedalGregory Fossedal is the self-described chairman of the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution .Fossedal, Gordon Haff, Benjamin Hart, and Keeney Jones founded the right-wing Dartmouth Review in 1980. Fossedal graduated from Dartmouth College in 1981 magna cum laude with an A.B. in English Literature...
."
The Capital Research Center
Capital Research Center
Capital Research Center is a conservative non-profit organization located in Washington, DC. It was founded in 1984 by Willa Johnson "to study non-profit organizations, with a special focus on reviving the American traditions of charity, philanthropy, and voluntarism." The group opposes the growth...
reports funding by the Fannie Mae Foundation, the AT&T Foundation, and the Amoco Foundation.
Microsoft and Linux
The AdTI published a controversial book, SamizdatSamizdat (book)
Samizdat: And Other Issues Regarding the 'Source' of Open Source Code is a book by Kenneth Brown, which was prereleased in May 2004 and was to be published later that year by the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution...
, that argued against aspects of open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
software. While the book called for increased investment open source development, it criticized what it called "hybrid" source models, in which true open source code is mixed with proprietary code, with the result that intellectual property rights (and thus value) are nullified.
To illustrate potential problems with this approach, the book cited the case of Linus Torvalds
Linus Torvalds
Linus Benedict Torvalds is a Finnish software engineer and hacker, best known for having initiated the development of the open source Linux kernel. He later became the chief architect of the Linux kernel, and now acts as the project's coordinator...
, creator of Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
. It claimed Torvalds had plagiarized Linux source code
Source code
In computer science, source code is text written using the format and syntax of the programming language that it is being written in. Such a language is specially designed to facilitate the work of computer programmers, who specify the actions to be performed by a computer mostly by writing source...
from both Unix
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
and MINIX
Minix
MINIX is a Unix-like computer operating system based on a microkernel architecture created by Andrew S. Tanenbaum for educational purposes; MINIX also inspired the creation of the Linux kernel....
, the latter a Unix-derived operating system written by Professor Andrew Tanenbaum. It cited a number of arguments for the claim, including an email from Tanenbaum saying MINIX "was the base" Torvalds used to create Linux. Tanenbaum later published a refutation of the book's interpretation, saying he believed Torvalds did write Linux single-handedly.
Microsoft had been one of the Institution's backers for five years, although a Microsoft spokesman said they had not funded any specific research. Microsoft funds several think tanks, including the American Enterprise Institute
American Enterprise Institute
The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research is a conservative think tank founded in 1943. Its stated mission is "to defend the principles and improve the institutions of American freedom and democratic capitalism—limited government, private enterprise, individual liberty and...
, the Center for Strategic and International Studies
Center for Strategic and International Studies
The Center for Strategic and International Studies is a bipartisan Washington, D.C., foreign policy think tank. The center was founded in 1962 by Admiral Arleigh Burke and Ambassador David Manker Abshire, originally as part of Georgetown University...
, the Heritage Foundation
Heritage Foundation
The Heritage Foundation is a conservative American think tank based in Washington, D.C. Heritage's stated mission is to "formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong...
and the Cato Institute
Cato Institute
The Cato Institute is a libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1977 by Edward H. Crane, who remains president and CEO, and Charles Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of the conglomerate Koch Industries, Inc., the largest privately held...
.
Open source and Linux
The AdTI is known for publishing a series of studies beginning in 2002 on the theme of intellectual propertyIntellectual property
Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...
in the software industry. The Institution authored Opening the Open Source Debate (June 2002), a report critical of Microsoft's open-source rivals. This report claimed that open source software was inherently less secure
Computer security
Computer security is a branch of computer technology known as information security as applied to computers and networks. The objective of computer security includes protection of information and property from theft, corruption, or natural disaster, while allowing the information and property to...
than proprietary software
Proprietary software
Proprietary software is computer software licensed under exclusive legal right of the copyright holder. The licensee is given the right to use the software under certain conditions, while restricted from other uses, such as modification, further distribution, or reverse engineering.Complementary...
and hence a particular target for terrorists.
These studies culminated in Samizdat: And Other Issues Regarding the 'Source' of Open Source Code
Samizdat (book)
Samizdat: And Other Issues Regarding the 'Source' of Open Source Code is a book by Kenneth Brown, which was prereleased in May 2004 and was to be published later that year by the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution...
(prereleased May 2004, but unreleased ), questioning the generally accepted provenance of Linux and other open source projects, and recommending that government-funded programming should never be licensed under the GNU General Public License
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
but under the BSD license or similar licenses.
The book claims that Linus Torvalds used source code taken from Minix
Minix
MINIX is a Unix-like computer operating system based on a microkernel architecture created by Andrew S. Tanenbaum for educational purposes; MINIX also inspired the creation of the Linux kernel....
, a small Unix-like
Unix-like
A Unix-like operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, while not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification....
operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
used in teaching computer science
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
, to create Linux 0.01, on the theory that no mere student could write an entire Unix-like kernel single-handedly — although writing a kernel of similar size and capabilities is a standard part of many computer science
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
degrees. These claims have been seriously questioned, including by many of those quoted in support, such as Andrew S. Tanenbaum
Andrew S. Tanenbaum
Andrew Stuart "Andy" Tanenbaum is a professor of computer science at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam in the Netherlands. He is best known as the author of MINIX, a free Unix-like operating system for teaching purposes, and for his computer science textbooks, regarded as standard texts in the...
, author of Minix; Dennis Ritchie
Dennis Ritchie
Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie , was an American computer scientist who "helped shape the digital era." He created the C programming language and, with long-time colleague Ken Thompson, the UNIX operating system...
, one of the creators of Unix; and Richard Stallman
Richard Stallman
Richard Matthew Stallman , often shortened to rms,"'Richard Stallman' is just my mundane name; you can call me 'rms'"|last= Stallman|first= Richard|date= N.D.|work=Richard Stallman's homepage...
, leader of the GNU project. Others have said that quotes attributed as being from an "interview with AdTI" were in fact from prerelease papers (Ilkka Tuomi
Ilkka Tuomi
Ilkka Tuomi , a native of Finland, is noted for writings on the subject of the Internet.-Works:Ilkka Tuomi has written books, including Networks of Innovation: Change and Meaning in the Age of the Internet which develops theory of open innovation based on analysis of Internet-related innovations...
) or from message board
Internet forum
An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are at least temporarily archived...
posts (Charles Mills, Henry Jones). Alexey Toptygin said he had been commissioned by Brown to find similarities between Minix and Linux 0.01 source code, and found no support for the theory that Minix source code had been used to create Linux; this study is not mentioned in the book.
A Microsoft spokesman called the furor over the book "an unhelpful distraction from what matters most—providing the best technology for our customers." (WSJ, 14 June 2004)
The AdTI was preparing a new study in November 2004, tentatively titled Intellectual Property Left, to argue that "the IT industry sector's reluctance to pursue rampant IP infringement against public domain software developers and users is going to precipitate billions of dollars in balance sheet downgrades by Wall Street."
The later papers stand in contrast to the Institution's 2000 paper, The Market Place Should Rule on Technology, which discusses Linux as a direct competitor to Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
.
Tobacco industry work
As part of the 1998 Tobacco Settlement Agreement, the Philip MorrisPhilip Morris USA
Philip Morris USA is the United States tobacco division of Altria Group, Inc. Philip Morris USA brands include Marlboro, Virginia Slims, Benson and Hedges, Merit, Parliament, Alpine, Basic, Cambridge, Bucks, Dave's, Chesterfield, Collector's Choice, Commander, English Ovals, Lark, L&M, Players and...
corporation released millions of pages of documents concerning their operations. These detail how, after the Environmental Protection Agency
United States Environmental Protection Agency
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress...
moved in 1993 to have second-hand tobacco smoke declared a carcinogen
Carcinogen
A carcinogen is any substance, radionuclide, or radiation that is an agent directly involved in causing cancer. This may be due to the ability to damage the genome or to the disruption of cellular metabolic processes...
, Philip Morris hired the AdTI to campaign against the move. This resulted in the 1994 paper Science, Economics, and Environmental Policy: A Critical Examination.
In 1994, part of the Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
administration's health plan proposed an increase in cigarette
Cigarette
A cigarette is a small roll of finely cut tobacco leaves wrapped in a cylinder of thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end and allowed to smoulder; its smoke is inhaled from the other end, which is held in or to the mouth and in some cases a cigarette holder may be used as well...
sales tax
Sales tax
A sales tax is a tax, usually paid by the consumer at the point of purchase, itemized separately from the base price, for certain goods and services. The tax amount is usually calculated by applying a percentage rate to the taxable price of a sale....
from 24¢ a packet to 99¢ a packet. Merrick Carey, then president of the AdTI, put a plan to Philip Morris whereby, for $30,000 a month, the Institution would conduct a campaign for them. The AdTI then presented itself as a "bipartisan" economic think tank presenting an analysis of the Clinton plan, nowhere mentioning they were directly hired by Philip Morris to oppose the tax increase.
Tobaccodocuments.org contains a number of searchable documents produced as court discovery linking AdTI to Lorillard and Phillip Morris corporations. AdTI is linked to Dr. Fred Singer
Fred Singer
Siegfried Fred Singer is an Austrian-born American physicist and emeritus professor of environmental science at the University of Virginia...
in the tobacco documents, the Cooler Heads Coalition
Cooler Heads Coalition
The Cooler Heads Coalition was originally a project of the National Consumer Coalition in the United States, a project of the nonprofit organization Consumer Alert. The Cooler Heads Coalition is now financed and operated by the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Its objective is described as...
, Consumer Alert
Consumer Alert
Consumer Alert was an American non-profit organization which advocated on business and consumer issues. It was primarily funded by corporations. It was founded in 1977 by Barbara A. Keating-Edh and John Henry Sununu, who would later go on to become Governor of New Hampshire and White House Chief...
, Heartland Institute
Heartland Institute
The Heartland Institute is a libertarian, American public policy think tank based in Chicago, Illinois which advocates free market policies. The Institute is designated as a 501 non-profit by the Internal Revenue Service and advised by a 15 member board of directors, which meets quarterly. As of...
, and the Competitive Enterprise Institute
Competitive Enterprise Institute
The Competitive Enterprise Institute is a non-profit think tank founded on March 9, 1984 in Washington, D.C. by lobbyist Fred L. Smith, Jr to advance economic liberty and fight over-regulation by big government...
.
Education
The AdTI produced a considerable number of papers on education policy. It ran a program called the Teacher Choice Project, advocating vouchers for education and marking unions as bad for teachers. Most of these were produced during 2000 and 2001.Defense
When the B-2 bomber program was threatened in 1995, the AdTI organised a letter to President Bill Clinton signed by seven former PentagonThe Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.Designed by the American architect...
chiefs: Dick Cheney
Dick Cheney
Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney served as the 46th Vice President of the United States , under George W. Bush....
, Caspar Weinberger
Caspar Weinberger
Caspar Willard "Cap" Weinberger , was an American politician, vice president and general counsel of Bechtel Corporation, and Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan from January 21, 1981, until November 23, 1987, making him the third longest-serving defense secretary to date, after...
, Frank Carlucci
Frank Carlucci
Frank Charles Carlucci III is a former official in the United States Government, associated with the Republican Party. The most prominent office held by Carlucci was as Secretary of Defense from 1987 until 1989 in the Reagan Administration.-Early life and career:Carlucci was born in Scranton,...
, Harold Brown
Harold Brown
Harold Brown may refer to:*Harold Brown *Harold P. Brown, builder of the first electric chair*Harold L. Brown, Pennsylvania politician*Harold Brown , American physicist, U.S...
, James Schlesinger, Donald Rumsfeld
Donald Rumsfeld
Donald Henry Rumsfeld is an American politician and businessman. Rumsfeld served as the 13th Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford, and as the 21st Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2006 under President George W. Bush. He is both the youngest and the oldest person to...
and Melvin Laird.
Health
The AdTI published Newt GingrichNewt Gingrich
Newton Leroy "Newt" Gingrich is a U.S. Republican Party politician who served as the House Minority Whip from 1989 to 1995 and as the 58th Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999....
's 2003 book, Saving Lives & Saving Money: Transforming Health and Healthcare.
Global warming
AdTI was a member organization of the Cooler Heads CoalitionCooler Heads Coalition
The Cooler Heads Coalition was originally a project of the National Consumer Coalition in the United States, a project of the nonprofit organization Consumer Alert. The Cooler Heads Coalition is now financed and operated by the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Its objective is described as...
which asserts that "the science of global warming is uncertain" and is focused on "dispelling the myths of global warming by exposing flawed economic, scientific, and risk analysis."
External links
- Official home page (Reporting 503 - Service Unavailable - 10 March, 2011)
- Alexis de Tocqueville Institution (Disinfopedia, Center for Media & Democracy)
- Grant data matrix: Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, 1988-2002 (MediaTransparency)
- Science, Economics, and Environmental Policy: A Critical Examination (11 August 1994)
- Criticism of Science, Economics, and Environmental Policy (American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 91 No. 11, November 2001)
Media coverage
- Did MS Pay for Open-Source Scare? (Wired News, 5 June 2002)
- Accusatory Study: Many Open-Sourcers Steal Code (LinuxInsider, 19 May 2004)
- Is Torvalds really the father of Linux? (ZDnet, 19 May 2004)